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On the Social Basis Of The Lin Piao Antiparty Clique Yao Wen-yuan (A translation of an article in "Hongqi," No. 3, 1975)
As with all other revisionists and revisionist trends of thought, the appearance of Lin Piao and his revisionist line was no accident. Lin Piao and his sworn followers were extremely isolated in the whole Party and army and among the people of the entire country; but there exists a deep-rooted class basis in society that engendered this bunch of extremely isolated persons who styled themselves "heavenly horses flying through the skies," "solitary and free." It is rather clear that the Lin Piao anti-Party clique represented the interests of the overthrown landlord and capitalist classes and the desire of the overthrown reactionaries to topple the dictatorship of the proletariat and restore the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. The Lin Piao anti-Party clique opposed the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and nursed an inveterate hatred for the socialist system of dictatorship of the proletariat in our country, which they slandered as "feudal autocracy" and reviled as "the present-day Chin Shih Huang." They wanted to give the landlords, rich peasants, counter-revolutionaries, bad elements and Rightists "genuine liberation politically and economically," i.e., both in politics and in economics they wanted to turn the dictatorship of the proletariat into a dictatorship of the landlord and comprador-capitalist classes and the socialist system into a capitalist one. As inner-Party agents of the bourgeoisie striving for restoration, the Lin Piao anti-Party clique reached the pitch of frenzy in their attacks on the Party and the dictatorship of the proletariat, going so far as to set up an organization of secret agents and plot a counter-revolutionary armed coup d'etat. Such frenzy demonstrates that reactionaries who have lost political power and the means of production will inevitably resort to every possible method to recapture the lost positions of the exploiting classes. We have seen how Lin Piao, after going bankrupt politically and ideologically, tried to "devour" the proletariat with the desperation of a gambler staking everything on a single last throw, and ended up betraying his country and fleeing to cast himself into the arms of the enemy; while the extremely patient education, waiting and efforts made to save him by Chairman Mao and the Party Central Committee could not in the least change his counter-revolutionary nature. All this demonstrates the life-and-death struggle, under the dictatorship of the proletariat, between the two major antagonistic classes, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, a struggle that will go on for a very long time. As long as the overthrown reactionary classes still exist, there will emerge within the Party (and in society) representatives of the bourgeoisie who turn their hopes for restoration into attempts at restoration. Therefore, we must heighten our vigilance and guard against and smash any and every plot by reactionaries both at home and abroad, and must on no account fall into complacency. But understanding of this fact does not exhaust the issue. Not only did the Lin Piao anti-Party clique represent the desire of the overthrown landlord and capitalist classes for a restoration; it also represented the desire of the newly engendered bourgeois elements in socialist society to usurp power. The clique had certain of the characteristics of these new bourgeois, to whose number some of its members belonged. And some of its slogans suited and reflected what was needed by the bourgeois elements and those wishing to take the capitalist road - for the purpose of developing capitalism. It is this latter aspect that requires further analysis by us. Chairman Mao has stated, "Lenin said that 'small production engenders capitalism and the bourgeoisie continuously, daily, hourly, spontaneously, and on a mass scale.' They are also engendered among a part of the working class and of the Party membership. Both within the ranks of the proletariat and among the personnel of state and other organs there are people who take to the bourgeois style of life." Some persons in the Lin Piao anti-Party clique were themselves representatives of such a newly engendered bourgeoisie, of such newly engendered capitalism. Among them, Lin Li-kuo [Lin Piao's son] and his "small fleet" [code name for their secret agent organization] were in all respects anti-socialist bourgeois elements and counter-revolutionaries engendered in socialist society. The existence of bourgeois influence, and of the influence of international imperialism and revisionism, constitutes the political and ideological source of the new bourgeois elements. And the existence of bourgeois right provides an important economic foundation for their emergence. Lenin said, ". . . in the first phase of communist society (usually called socialism) 'bourgeois right' is not abolished in its entirety, but only in part, only in proportion to the economic revolution so far attained, i.e., only in respect of the means of production." "However, it continues to exist as far as its other part is concerned; it continues to exist in the capacity of regulator (determining factor) in the distribution of products and the allotment of labour among the members of society. The socialist principle: 'He who does not work, neither shall he eat,' is already realized; the other socialist principle: 'An equal amount of products for an equal amount of labour,' is also already realized. But this is not yet communism, and it does not yet abolish 'bourgeois right,' which gives to unequal individuals, in return for unequal (actually unequal) amounts of labour, equal amounts of products." Chairman Mao tells us, ". . . China is a socialist country. Before liberation, she was much the same as a capitalist country. Even now she practises an eight-grade wage system, distribution according to work and exchange through money, and in all this differs very little from the old society. What is different is that the system of ownership has been changed." "Our country at present practises a commodity system, the wage system is unequal, too, as in the eight-grade wage scale, and so forth. Under the dictatorship of the proletariat such things can only be restricted." In socialist society, we still have two kinds of socialist ownership: ownership by the whole people and collective ownership. This determines our practice of the commodity system at the present time. The analyses by Lenin and Chairman Mao both tell us that bourgeois right, which inevitably exists in distribution and exchange under the socialist system, should be restricted under the dictatorship of the proletariat, so that in the long course of the socialist revolution the three major differences between workers and peasants, between town and country and between manual and mental labour will gradually be narrowed, as will the discrepancies between the various grades, and so that material and ideological conditions will gradually be created for closing up all these gaps. If we do not act in this way, but instead call for the consolidation, extension and strengthening of bourgeois right and the partial inequality it entails, the inevitable result will be polarization, i.e., in the matter of distribution a small number of people will appropriate increasing amounts of commodities and money through some legal and many illegal ways; stimulated by "material incentives" of this kind, capitalist ideas of making a fortune and craving for personal fame and gain will spread unchecked; phenomena like the turning of public property into private property, speculation, graft and corruption, theft and bribery will increase; the capitalist principle of the exchange of commodities will make its way into political and even into Party life, undermining the socialist planned economy; acts of capitalist exploitation such as the conversion of commodities and money into capital, and labour power into a commodity, will occur; changes in the nature of the ownership will take place in certain departments and units which follow the revisionist line; and instances of oppression and exploitation of the labouring people will arise again. As a result, a small number of new bourgeois elements and upstarts who have totally betrayed the proletariat and the labouring people will emerge from among the Party members, workers, well-to-do peasants and personnel of state and other organs. As our worker-comrades have aptly put it, "If bourgeois right is not restricted, it will restrict the development of socialism and promote the growth of capitalism." When the economic strength of the bourgeoisie has grown to a certain extent, its agents will demand political rule, demand the overthrow of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the socialist system, demand a complete changeover from socialist ownership, and openly restore and develop the capitalist system. Once in power, the new bourgeoisie will start with sanguinary suppression of the people and restoration of capitalism in the superstructure, including all spheres of ideology and culture; then they will conduct distribution to each according to how much or little capital and power he has, so that the principle of "to each according to his work" will become an empty shell, and the handful of new bourgeois elements monopolizing the means of production will at the same time monopolize the power of distributing consumer goods and other products. Such is the process of restoration that has already occurred in the Soviet Union. Many instances of how the Lin Piao anti-Party clique scrupled at nothing to amass riches, insatiably pursued the bourgeois way of life and used bourgeois right to do all kinds of sinister and ugly things not bearing the light of day have been exposed and subjected to criticism. Even more illustrative is their programme for a counter-revolutionary coup d'etat, Outline of "Project 571," in which the Lin Piao anti-Party clique made use precisely of the ideology of bourgeois right to abet or incite certain persons from different classes to oppose the dictatorship of the proletariat. In other words, the class interests represented by this programme, apart from those of the old bourgeoisie, are precisely the interests of a number of new bourgeois elements and the few people who want to use bourgeois right to develop capitalism. This explains why their programme directed its attack against Chairman Mao's proletarian revolutionary line and why it showed particular hatred for the restrictions placed on bourgeois right by the socialist revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat in our country. The Lin Piao anti-Party clique slandered the practice of office personnel going to May 7th cadre schools as "unemployment in disguise"; they vilified the simplification of administrative structures, and bringing them closer to the masses, as a blow at the cadres. They held that cadres should be overlords sitting on the backs of the people and hence considered them "unemployed" the minute they took part in collective productive labour. All this was designed to incite a section of the office workers - those who wished to extend bourgeois right and be officials and overlords or those seriously infected with the bourgeois style of life - to oppose the Party's line and the socialist system. The Lin Piao anti-Party clique slanderously alleged that when intellectuals integrate themselves with the workers and peasants and go to the countryside, that is "reform through forced labour in another guise." Young people, full of vigour and imbued with communist consciousness, have been going, group after group, to the countryside. This is a great undertaking of far-reaching significance for narrowing the three major differences and restricting bourgeois right. All revolutionary people laud it with enthusiasm, but those corrupted by bourgeois ideology, and particularly those manacled by the ideology of bourgeois right, oppose it. Whether the integration of educated young people with the workers and peasants is persisted in or not has a direct bearing on whether the revolution in university education can be carried forward along the road blazed by the Shanghai Machine Tools Plant, i.e., the students not only come from among the workers and peasants but, after graduation, return to their midst. The Lin Piao anti-Party clique's special hatred for this practice laid bare not only its antagonism towards the labouring people, but also its use of bourgeois right to attack the Party, by inciting some of the people deeply influenced by the ideology of bourgeois right into opposing the socialist revolution. This clique's programme was aimed at widening the gap between town and country and between manual and mental labour, and turning educated young people into a new elite stratum; through such means it sought to win the support of persons deeply influenced by the ideology of bourgeois right for its counter-revolutionary coup d'etat. The Lin Piao anti-Party clique smeared as "subjection to exploitation in disguise" the communist spirit displayed by the working class in criticizing the "material incentives" of the revisionists. Lin Piao was a fanatical advocate of "material incentive." In his sinister notebook he wrote such revisionist trash as "material incentive is still necessary," "materialism - material incentive," "inducements: official posts, emoluments, favour." Moreover, a principal member of the Lin Piao anti-Party clique wrote that "the principle of 'to each according to his work' and of material benefit" was "the decisive motive force" in promoting production. On the surface, they advocated using money as an "incentive" for the workers; actually they wanted to widen without limit the differences in grade among the workers in order to cultivate and buy over a small section of the working class, turn it into a privileged stratum which would betray the proletarian dictatorship and the proletariat's interests, and thus split the unity of the working class. They tried to corrupt the workers with the bourgeois world outlook and to use the small number of workers deeply influenced by the ideology of bourgeois right as one of the forces supporting their opposition to the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Lin Piao clique attached "particular importance" to using "wages" to lure "young workers," and its "inducements: official posts, emoluments, favour" represented a sinister plot. All this shows us, by negative example, that young workers, and particularly those who have become cadres, must consciously reject the material inducements of the bourgeoisie and all the blandishments of the ideology of bourgeois right. They must maintain and bring into play the revolutionary communist spirit of valiant struggle for the complete emancipation of the proletariat and all humanity and strive to arm themselves with the Marxist-Leninist world outlook; and never must they allow themselves to be dazzled and dizzied by the glittering world of commodities, exchange through money, vulgar flattery, sycophancy and factionalism, lest they should be deceived by political swindlers like Lin Piao or by the landlord and bourgeois elements in society. Under the cloak of "showing concern" for the young workers, these persons are actually putting out "incentives" to lure them onto the capitalist road, and hence can be termed political "abettors of crime." The inexperienced newly engendered bourgeois elements break the law openly while cunning old-time bourgeois elements direct them from behind the scenes - this is often observed in the class struggle in society today. In handling corrupted young people who have committed crimes we concentrate especially on hitting at their abettors behind the scenes. We must keep on with this policy. A number of young workers who take a clear-cut stand in the fight against bourgeois corruption have come to the fore in current struggles; to them we must give support, and we must sum up their experience gained in the struggle. Moreover, the Lin Piao anti-Party clique alleged that the peasants "lack food and clothing," that "the living standards" of cadres in the armed forces "are deteriorating," and that the Red Guards who displayed the spirit of daring to think, speak, blaze the trail, act and make revolution in the criticism of the bourgeoisie during the great Cultural Revolution were "being hoodwinked and used".... In all these vilifications, its aim was to totally negate the socialist system and the Party's mass line, negate the dictatorship of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie, extend bourgeois right and restore capitalism. By spreading the slander that the peasants "lack food and clothing," it aimed at inciting the peasants to "eat up and divide everything" in order to undermine and liquidate the socialist collective economy. If things were done along this line, a small number of people would turn into the new bourgeoisie while the overwhelming majority would fall prey to capitalist exploitation. In short, the situation yearned for by the landlords, the rich peasants and the section of the well-to-do middle peasants taking the capitalist road in the countryside would come to pass. By now we can see what Lin Piao's so-called "building of genuine socialism" amounted to. In reality it was the extension of bourgeois right under the signboard of socialism, aimed at enabling the new bourgeois elements and certain factions and groupings intent on going the capitalist road, in collusion with the overthrown landlord and capitalist classes, to "have everything under their command and everything at their disposal," to overthrow the dictatorship of the proletariat and to restore capitalism. Lin Piao and his like were their political representatives. The programme advanced by the Lin Piao anti-Party clique in Outline of "Project 571" did not drop from the skies, nor was it innate in the minds of those who described themselves as "super-geniuses"; it was a reflection of social being. To be exact, this clique, proceeding from its reactionary bourgeois stand, reflected the demands of the unreformed landlords, rich peasants, counter-revolutionaries, bad elements and Rightists - who account for only a few per cent of the population - and also the demand of the small number of new bourgeois elements and persons intent on utilizing bourgeois right to become new bourgeois elements. On the other hand, it opposed the demand of the revolutionary people, who make up more than 90 per cent of the population, for adherence to the socialist road. This clique used idealist apriorism to oppose the materialist theory of reflection; however, the materialist theory of reflection must be employed to explain how its counter-revolutionary ideology came into being. Why would it be quite easy for people like Lin Piao to rig up the capitalist system if they come to power? Simply because in our socialist society classes and class struggle still exist, and so do the soil and conditions that engender capitalism. In order to gradually reduce this soil and these conditions all the way to their final elimination, we must persevere in the continued revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat. Only through the firm and indomitable efforts of several generations can this task be accomplished by the vanguard of the proletariat guided by Chairman Mao's revolutionary line. It requires that we adhere to the Party's basic line, enhance the political consciousness of the working class, consolidate the worker-peasant alliance, unite all forces that can be united with, unite and lead the masses of revolutionary people to consciously remould their own world outlook in the fight against class enemies and in the three great revolutionary movements of class struggle, the struggle for production and scientific experiment. It requires that we consolidate and extend socialist ownership by the whole people and socialist collective ownership by working people, prevent the restoration of the bourgeois right that has already been liquidated in the system of ownership, and continue to fulfil, gradually and over a fairly long period of time, the still unfulfilled part of the task of transformation of ownership; and with regard to the two other aspects of the relations of production, namely, the mutual relations between people and the relations of distribution, it requires that we restrict bourgeois right, criticize the ideology of bourgeois right and continually weaken the basis that engenders capitalism. It requires that we persevere in the revolution in the superstructure, deepen our criticism of revisionism and of the bourgeoisie and achieve the all-round dictatorship of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie. In his talks given during an inspection tour of various places in the country in August and September 1971, Chairman Mao said: "We have been singing The Internationale for 50 years, yet on 10 occasions certain people inside our Party tried to split it. As I see it, this may happen another 10, 20 or 30 times. You don't believe it? You may not believe it. Anyhow I do. Will there be no struggle when we get to communism? I just don't believe it. There will be struggles even then, but only between the new and the old, between what is correct and what is incorrect. Tens of thousands of years from now, what is wrong still won't get by, it won't stand up." Lenin said, "Yes, by overthrowing the landlords and bourgeoisie we cleared the way but we did not build the edifice of socialism. On the ground cleared of one bourgeois generation, new generations continually appear in history, as long as the ground gives rise to them, and it does give rise to any number of bourgeois. As for those who look at the victory over the capitalists in the way that the petty proprietors look at it - 'they grabbed, let me have a go too' - indeed, every one of them is the source of a new generation of bourgeois." Here Lenin discussed the protracted nature of class struggle in society; and Chairman Mao discusses the protracted nature of the two-line struggle which arises in the Party as a reflection of this class struggle. Through this class struggle, and this two-line struggle, we must continually defeat the bourgeoisie and its agents working for revisionism and for a split and engaging in intrigue and conspiracy; only thus can we gradually create the conditions in which it will be impossible for the bourgeoisie to exist or arise anew, and finally achieve the abolition of classes. Such is the great cause we must work to accomplish during the entire historical period of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The new bourgeois elements who arise as a result of corrosion by bourgeois ideas and the existence of bourgeois right generally have the political traits of double-dealers and upstarts. In order to carry out capitalist activities under the dictatorship of the proletariat, they invariably display some sort of socialist signboard; and since the aim of their restorationist activities is not to seize back means of production of which they have been dispossessed but to grab hold of the means of production which they have never possessed, they are particularly greedy and anxious to swallow at one gulp the wealth belonging to the whole people or to the collective, and transfer it to their private ownership. Such were the political traits of the Lin Piao anti-Party clique. "Exactly like the Chungshan wolf, most fierce when he attains his wish." These two lines from the novel The Dream of the Red Chamber, describing how one of its characters, Sun Shao-tsu, "changed amazingly according to circumstance" and finally emerged as a vicious brute, just fit the Lin Piao anti-Party clique. Before Lin Piao was in a position to "attain his wish," that is, before he got hold of part of the political and economic power, he employed counter-revolutionary double-dealing tactics to cheat the Party and the masses, and misused the might of the mass movement for his own ends; to do this, he did not hesitate to put up a revolutionary signboard and shout revolutionary slogans while at the same time distorting them. Analysing the inner world of Lin Piao and his gang, Chairman Mao wrote in a letter early in the great Cultural Revolution, "I guess their real intention is to make use of a Chung Kuei to fight the ghosts." [Chung Kuei, a legendary character, was said to have the power to drive away ghosts.] This was straight to the point. They were making use of "a brick to knock open the door," after which they would no longer need it and would brutally get rid of it. Acting the counter-revolutionary double-dealers, opposing the red flag by waving red flags, "speaking nice things to your face but stabbing you in the back," or, by the confession of the Lin Piao anti-Party clique itself, "waving Chairman Mao's banner to strike at Chairman Mao's forces" — these are but different ways of describing the same way of acting. The moment the Lin Piao anti-Party clique thought, to use its members' own words, that "after several years of preparation, the ideological, organizational and military level has been raised considerably and an ideological and material foundation has been laid to a certain extent," it decided to act "most fiercely." In the units and departments it dominated and controlled, it turned socialist public ownership into private ownership by the Lin Piao anti-Party clique. More and more openly it exposed its political ambitions which were bound to grow the more it "attained its wish," just as the avarice of the bourgeoisie knows no bounds and grows with the accumulation of capital. In analysing the bourgeois, Marx said, "As capitalist, he is only capital personified. His soul is the soul of capital." Likewise, the soul of Lin Piao, a bourgeois agent inside the Party, was nothing but the soul of the bourgeoisie, both the old, toppled but dreaming of a come-back, and the new, coming into being and vainly attempting to rule. Through class analysis, the root cause of the perverse, counter-revolutionary political activities of Lin Piao and his gang is revealed quite clearly: In all their dirty actions - preaching the doctrines of Confucius and Mencius, betraying the Party and the Chinese people, and going over to the side of social-imperialism - they were following in the footsteps of the Chinese comprador-bourgeoisie which had worshipped Confucius and betrayed the country; and the counter-revolutionary coup d'etat they so feverishly plotted was a mere repetition of the method the bourgeoisie of many countries has used innumerable times and employs to this day. Our task is: on the one hand to gradually dig away the soil breeding the bourgeoisie and capitalism, and, on the other, to be able promptly to see through the new bourgeois like Lin Piao when they appear or are still emerging. That is why the study of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought is so important. If we depart from the guidance of Marxism, we cannot accomplish this dual task; moreover, when a revisionist trend surfaces, we are likely to be taken in and even blindly board the pirate craft because of the ideology of bourgeois right in our own minds or because of lack of discernment. If this were not so, why did some people follow a revisionist line whenever it emerged? Why could Lin Piao and company deceive people at the Second Plenary Session of the Ninth Central Committee of the Party by resorting to idealism plus raising a hullabaloo? Why could those words of the Lin Piao anti-Party clique, aimed so nakedly at splitting the Party and overthrowing the dictatorship of the proletariat, find a market among a small number of cadres? Why could the "fleets," big and small, openly resort to such methods as wining and dining, making presents and promising official posts and other favours as a means of luring people into their clique, and carrying out factional and conspiratorial activities? Why did they write into their sinister notes and actually employ as a tactic in their counter-revolutionary activities such trash as "using expertise to cover up politics"? There is a profound lesson here. In opposing the Peng Teh-huai anti-Party clique in 1959, Chairman Mao pointed out that "at present, the main danger is empiricism," and that, therefore, we should read and study conscientiously. In the past decade and more, Chairman Mao has recommended this many times. He has stressed that senior and intermediate Party cadres, and first of all the members of the Party Central Committee, "should all conscientiously read and study according to their different circumstances and have a good grasp of Marxism." He also stresses that "in the next few years, special attention should he paid to the propagation of the Marxist-Leninist classics." After the collapse of the Lin Piao anti-Party clique, Chairman Mao said once more, "I formally advise comrades to do some reading." And recently he again stressed this when discussing the dictatorship of the proletariat. How heartening are these earnest and significant teachings! All comrades in the Party, and especially the high-ranking cadres, must get a grasp on conscientious study and reading as a matter of cardinal importance in consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat. First of all, they must study well themselves and gain a clear understanding of the theses and main works of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin and of Chairman Mao on the dictatorship of the proletariat, strive to elucidate the question by integrating theory with practice and rid themselves, both ideologically and in action, of the bourgeois ideas and style of work which are divorced from the masses, so as to identify themselves with the masses, really become promoters of the new emerging socialist things, become good at discerning corrosion by capitalism and dare to resist it. We must inherit and carry forward our Party's glorious tradition of plain living and arduous struggle which has been developed over the past decades. We must investigate the situation and study policy, including economic policy. It is imperative that we persist in adhering to the principle of grasping revolution and promoting production and other work and preparedness against war, a principle which has proved its effectiveness in practice. Attention should be paid to distinguishing between the two different types of contradictions and dealing accurately-aimed and powerful blows at the very small number of bad elements; as regards the bourgeois influence among the masses, we should overcome it by applying the formula "unity, criticism, unity" - mainly by such methods as studying and raising awareness, supporting advanced things that stand in firm opposition to capitalism, recalling the past and contrasting it with the present as well as by persuading and educating people and making criticism and self-criticism, and in these ways uniting 95 per cent of the cadres and of the masses. In criticizing capitalist tendencies, it is necessary to create public opinion, win over the majority, awaken their consciousness and give them active guidance. As for the few who have sunk deep into the quagmire of capitalism, they must be told sharply, "Comrades, mend your ways right now!" As was pointed out at the beginning of this article, the Lin Piao anti-Party clique was extremely isolated among the people of the whole country. In tracing its emergence to its class roots, we have pointed to the soil and conditions which produced it. Having stated this aspect of the matter, we must also point out that the Lin Piao anti-Party clique was in essence very feeble; like all reactionaries, it was a mere paper tiger. All the counter-revolutionary activities of this clique constituted a record only of defeat and impasse, not of victory. The socialist system is bound to replace the capitalist system and communism is bound to triumph throughout the world; this is an objective law independent of man's will. Socialist society is born out of the old society; it "is thus in every respect, economically, morally and intellectually, still stamped with the birth-marks of the old society from whose womb it emerges." This is not strange. The history of the past 25 years tells us that so long as we uphold the dictatorship of the proletariat, adhere to Chairman Mao's theory of continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat and adhere to the line, principles and policies for the socialist revolution which Chairman Mao has laid down for us, we shall be able to smash the resistance put up by the class enemies, erase these birth-marks step by step and continually win fresh victories. The present excellent situation, marked by the ever greater prosperity of our socialist cause, is in sharp contrast to the plight of imperialism and social-imperialism which are disintegrating internally and beset with difficulties at home and abroad. Chairman Mao's latest instructions on theory will certainly enable us, both in theory and in practice, to gain a better understanding of the historical tasks of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the ways to accomplish them; it will help greatly to consolidate the dictatorship of the proletariat, deepen the socialist revolution, spur the development of socialist construction and promote nationwide stability and unity. The Communists of China are full of confidence, and so are the proletariat and the revolutionary people of our country. United as one and high in spirit, they are fighting under the Party's leadership to oppose and prevent revisionism. The history of the Chinese revolution is the history of the revolutionary people advancing to victory through tortuous struggles, and it is a history of the reactionaries descending to their doom through repeated trials of strength. As Chairman Mao has summed it up, "In China, since the overthrow of the emperor in 1911, no reactionary has been able to stay in power long. The one who ruled longest (Chiang Kai-shek) did so for only 20 years, but he, too, fell once the people rose in revolt. Chiang Kai-shek climbed to power by taking advantage of Sun Yat-sen's trust in him and by running the Whampoa Academy and gathering a big bunch of reactionaries around him. As soon as he turned against the Communist Party, practically the whole landlord class and bourgeoisie came to his support. Moreover, the Communist Party was inexperienced at the time. So, he gleefully gained ascendancy for a while. In those 20 years, however, he never achieved unification. There were the war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the wars between the Kuomintang and the various warlord cliques, the Sino-Japanese war and, finally, the four years of large-scale civil war, which sent him scampering off to a cluster of islands. If the Rightists stage an anti-Communist coup d'etat in China, I am sure they will know no peace either and their rule will most probably be short-lived because it will not be tolerated by the revolutionaries, who represent the interests of the people making up more than 90 per cent of the population." "The conclusion is still the two familiar comments: The future is bright; the road is tortuous." Let us advance courageously in the direction and along the road pointed out by Chairman Mao!
(A translation of an article in "Hongqi," No.3, 1975)
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